For those in post-production, one of the most refreshing changes you can make to this effect is customizing a workspace in Adobe Premiere. All of the tools and features you use often will be right there in front of you, in perfect ergonomic form. Say goodbye to wrist strain for good.
What Is an Adobe Premiere Workspace?
Adobe Premiere organizes every function into one or more panels. The Timeline panel is where you build your sequence, for example. The Project panel is where you’ll find all of your bins and assets. The Media Browser lets you explore your computer’s file directory, and so on.
These panels are docked together into the Premiere application window. You can make them bigger or smaller, rearrange them, add more, or remove a few entirely. The ability to do all of these things is probably one of the simplest ways to customize your workspace in Premiere Pro.
The Default Adobe Premiere Workspaces
If you need a workspace designed for any of the following tasks, you’ll probably be able to start with one of the Adobe Premiere workspaces found at the top of the user interface.
These workspaces are designed with a professional workflow in mind. They all serve as excellent templates for your custom workspaces.
Learning
This is a super simple set-up. To the left of the screen, you should see the Learn panel, the most notable feature of this workspace. For skill development, tutorials, and other resources, you can follow along in your project after downloading any of Adobe’s lessons.
Assembly
The Assembly workspace keeps things very simple—the Project panel, the Source monitor, the toolbar, the audio meters, and the Timeline are all laid out, ready to go. This is a great workspace to choose from if you’ve got a lot to do and already have your footage prepared.
Editing
After the first initial slough, you’re ready to refine your cut. Now, you’ve got two monitors to work with—the Source monitor and the Program monitor. This is useful if you prefer Adobe Premiere’s source patching feature, pulling directly from each clip with In points and Out points.
Color
The Color workspace puts Lumetri right in your face with its own dedicated panel outside of each clip’s Effect Controls. It’s a much roomier environment within which to work, so if you’re already coloring your sequence, it might be your best bet.
Effects
The stack to the right is now topped with the Effects panel, followed by the Essential Graphics and the Essential Sound panels. Again, when things aren’t so cramped, working on these tiny little keyframe timelines becomes a lot easier. A sight for sore eyes, so to speak.
Read More: How to Use Effects in Adobe Premiere Pro
Audio
The Essential Sound panel is the star of this workspace, along with the Audio Clip Mixer and Audio Track Mixer. Little will distract you as you listen through your final mix-down. No-nonsense and perfect for those late nights in the suite.
Graphics
The Essential Graphics panel is a relatively new addition to Premiere Pro. It gives motion graphics artists access to the best of what After Effects offers in titling and things like credit rolls and lower thirds chyrons.
Captions
For closed captions, subtitles, and any other on-screen accessibility considerations that your project may involve, the Captions workspace puts it all at your fingertips. You can even import captions from an external file.
Libraries
If you’re one to straddle the fence between creative apps, the Libraries workspace transforms Premiere Pro into a central hub where you can view and access all of your assets at a glance.
Metalogging
This workspace is perfect for ingestion. With the right keyboard shortcuts in place, you’ll make quick work of everything that needs to be logged and organized.
Production
The Production panel is another fairly recent addition. Suppose you’re managing a series of projects all happening simultaneously. In that case, you can use this panel to relate them to one another and incorporate them into one single, continuous pipeline.
All Panels
You want it? You got it. All of the panels that Adobe Premiere Pro has to offer will be stacked neatly to your right. Scenarios where this set-up is the one to choose? Beats the hell out of me, but the option is right here waiting for you if you need it.
Miscellaneous Panels in Adobe Premiere Pro
Besides everything listed above, Adobe Premiere offers a few additional panels. For the sake of completion, we’re going to run through them quickly, just in case you need one of them:
The Capture Panel: This feature is designed for a DV tape workflow; it lets you digitize footage stored on a magnetic DV tape via FireWire. If you have no idea what a DV tape or a FireWire cable is, you probably don’t need to worry too much about anything shown here. The Edit-to-Tape Panel: Again, Premiere demonstrates the pride that they take in accommodating an obsolete workflow. This is essentially an export window when the user’s intended output is physical media, like tape. The Events Panel: If anything goes wrong, this is where Adobe Premiere will report the problem to you formally. The Progress Panel: You can use this panel to find any jobs running in the background. Additionally, you can keep track of their statuses and get a glimpse at any processes that have failed. The Timecode Panel: Probably the simplest panel in Premiere Pro. This adorable little window gives you the timecode identity of the frame that you’ve parked your playhead on. It’ll also give you some information about your In and Out points, as well as the duration contained therein.
Putting these panels to use might be a challenge. What can you do to reduce the clutter of all of these stray windows?
How to Customize Your Workspace in Premiere Pro
The simplest way to customize a workspace in Adobe Premiere is to grab a panel and show what it’s for. To do so, click the title of the panel and drag.
Hovering over the center highlights the middle of the destination panel. Dropping the panel here will add it to the existing panel’s panel group. You can tab through them all by scrolling or by using the little arrows.
If you drop it while one of the sides is highlighted, Premiere will instead wedge the panel below, next to, or above the destination panel, depending on where you choose to release the mouse. The two panels will now sit side-by-side or on top of one another, but not in a true “stack” as we’ve seen previously in some of our default workspaces.
When you click the hamburger menu button on any Premiere panel, you’ll see a few choices:
Close Panel: This closes the panel and removes it from your workspace. Undock Panel: This releases the panel from its docking and allows you to drag it anywhere on-screen. Close Other Panels in Group: The other docked panels in this panel group will be put to rest. Goodnight, Irene.
And, under your Panel Group Settings:
Close Panel Group: This closes every panel in the group. Undock Panel Group: This undocks the panel group as one window. Maximize Panel Group: Maximize the panel group so that it takes up your entire UI. Stacked Panel Group: The panels are stacked upon one another, just like in some of the default workspaces. You can expand each one by prying it open with your mouse. Any new panels added to this group will stack automatically. Small Tabs: This is the option for the default tabbed display.
Aside from that? It’s really up to you. Which panels do you find yourself reaching for most frequently? What is never up and ready for you when you need it? Which panels are always getting in the way?
Once you’ve found the winning combination, you can save your set-up as a new workspace preset via the Window dropdown above. Under Workspaces, select Save as New Workspace. Name your preset and hit OK. You should now see it alongside the rest under the Workspace panel’s overflow.
A Premiere Workspace for Any Occasion
Great, so you’ve got your perfect Premiere Pro workspace all squared away. Why stop here?
If you’re someone who wears many hats, creating a custom Adobe Premiere workspace for every task on your plate will likely save you a lot of time in the future. As your projects become more complex and unwieldy, you’re going to want every advantage you can get in your corner.
The good news? Premiere Pro makes it easy. A streamlined workspace makes every project a pleasure to partake in, and you can do it all for yourself today.
